CIE is highlighting the large and small ways that faculty are responding to Generative AI. Next up is automotive instructor Ken Klumpp, one of the earliest adopters of the technology at NMC. Here’s a paraphrase of Ken’s comments

JL: When we first started talking about AI at the New Faculty Institute a couple of years ago, you were way out in front of the rest of us. What prompted you to embrace the technology?

KK: I started using it as a survival tool. As a new faculty member, going through the provisional process, it bridged the gap between my academic work and my practical hands-on application. At that time, most of my emails were AI generated. 

Currently, I use AI as an assistant. I give it an idea and criteria and go back and forth. Then I have AI generate a lab exercise with an assignment and a rubric. The more you work with it, the more seamless it becomes. If I overhear a conversation before class that tells me that students don’t understand something, I can go back into the Gemini conversation and ask it to create a case study. I give students 10 minutes to try to figure out the problem themselves, so I can see if they’re on the right track. Students don’t realize I do this on the fly. I joke that I had my assistant put together an exercise for today.

JL: What’s the accuracy of the information from Gen AI? In automotive, you are dealing with specialized information.

KK: It’s accurate enough for me to edit. It pulls things from the internet which is full of garbage. That’s why I do not recommend that students use it to study. In class, I have them fact check AI. They ask AI a question and then go to the book. The accuracy of AI on our material is about 80 percent, and I want students to see that for themselves. I like to see them recognize the inaccuracies before they check the book. When they can do that, I know that they’ve masted the subject. 

Tests include hands-on assessment. But because of AI, we now also do more handwritten exercises and more in-class quizzes and tests rather than take work home. It’s daunting, but if they succeed this way, I am comfortable that they can pass with an A. 

JL: How else has Gen AI changed your work? 

KK: I use it for writing. I use it to proofread documents and give me feedback. It’s helped me be a better writer. I have also used AI to update lab exercises to make them cleaner and more organized. Next semester, I will run all my syllabi through AI. Overall, my strategy is to figure out what AI can and can’t do and keep moving.